1. Opens up passing lanes for City's advanced players to receive ball
2.Draws Gundogan's marker away- he then has time & space to receive the ball from Silva
• Returning to the last clip-look how Silva initially moves forwards but then quickly retreats to provide an option for Laporte & receives the ball. This simple move manipulates space for others (Gundogan in this case) to create
•Before the Man City game, they had conceded 9 goals in 10 games - 0.9 goals per game. Whereas before Arteta took over, they had conceded 27 goals in 18 games - 1.5 goals/game
Again, until the Luiz error,Arsenal looked much better organised:
•Allowed City to counter with excellent passing from his own half
•Plus dribbling out of pressure
•Walker sat in inverted position to stop counters, so KDB provided dangerous underlaps for Mahrez to find, inside of Tierney
•We're used to Walker taking up deeper tucked-in positions,instead of overlapping
•But we also saw Mendy take up this role when Walker wanted to overlap- this was key to stopping Arsenal counters
•Arsenal midfielders have much to do in terms of receiving passes in positions like City's
•Saliba's role as a ball-carrier will be vital
•Compact off-ball structure is good,but pressing is not as sophisticated as City's
•Play more direct passes in transition
•KDB😍